Prime Minister Bob Hawke's federal Labor government ignored several adverse reports on the activities of controversial imam Sheik Taj Eldeen Alhilaly, filed by Australia's foreign and domestic intelligence agencies, ensuring that he would be granted permanent residency.Australian authorities still won't go near Lakemba Mosque, these days even when Muslim youths are openly wandering around the environs with guns, as they did during the revenge riots following Cronulla.
Had it heeded the reports from both ASIS and ASIO, instead of pandering to the ethnic vote, Alhilaly would not be in the country now, still claiming to have been misinterpreted after spending 24 years delivering abusive and intolerant sermons to his followers.
...Alhilaly's name first surfaced in a report prepared by one of Australia's most senior intelligence assets in Cairo, towards the end of 1984, when the sheik was living in Sydney, though he had already overstayed his tourist visa... (the) report on Alhilaly drew upon information held within the files of the Egyptian intelligence service in Cairo and detailed his alleged activities at Lakemba Mosque.
The Egyptian government was interested in Alhilaly because of his membership in the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation that still preaches a visceral hatred of the West... They said there was a cache of weapons of military calibre kept at the (Lakemba) mosque and listed various items, including rifles and ammunition. It was not the sort of stuff farmers keep, the source said. The Egyptians' informants in Australia said the weapons were kept at the mosque because it was thought the authorities were unlikely to raid a place of worship.
And members of the Australian Labor Party will still wilfully turn a blind eye to terrorists if it means keeping their vote.
Lakemba is NSW State Labor Premier Morris Iemma's electorate.
There's a bitter irony that 'Citizenship' is among Iemma's portfolios.
-- Nick
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